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Everyone zones out every once in a while — whether during a boring lecture, or just at the breakfast table, eating cereal. It’s just one of those things humans do.
All people find themselves staring into space sometimes, blocking out the world around them, and letting their mind wander. Now, a study in the Journal of Neuroscience has shown that zoning out is not a sign of laziness or the brain taking a break, rather it is actually processing information and learning.
Hidden Patterns
In order to study how zoning out affects learning,according to Scientific American the researchers developed an experiment that required about 40 subjects to do a relatively simple computerized task, pressing keyboard buttons corresponding to arrows that lit up on the screen, while their brain waves were being monitored by an EEG.
However, unbeknownst to the participants, the task was embedded with secret patterns. What the researchers found was that people who zoned out while doing tasks adapted to the hidden patterns more quickly.
In fact, SciTechDaily points out that those who zoned out spontaneously spotted the patterns more easily than those who were directed to let their mind wander. But why is this the case? What about zoning out makes it easier for the brain to learn?
The Sleep Connection
The researchers discovered that zoning out brain waves are very similar to certain brain waves that are emitted during sleep, according to the Hindustan Times. These slow-wave brain waves are part of what helps the brain process information, and that is perhaps the reason that the experiment participants were better able to recognize the patterns post their zone-outs.
“Most cognitive work looks at learning when you are fully engaged. But in real life, we spend so much time passively learning! As our brain needs sleep, maybe we also need passive ways of learning, or ‘wakeful rest,’ to recover from tasks that require your brain to be online and engaged,” Dr. Péter Simor, the lead author of the study and the head of the Budapest Laboratory of Sleep and Cognition told SciTechDaily.
Students and workers are often reprimanded for their wandering minds when they should be concentrating on a task. However, the study suggests that perhaps teachers, employers, and people in general should rethink their negative opinions of zoning out.
Just like a good night’s sleep is required in order to learn, so too, the brain needs time to rest and process information while it is awake as well. So embrace zoning out and give your brain the advantage of some extra processing power.
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